Government Should Learn From Private Sector

William Gindlesperger, Chief Executive Officer, e-LYNXX Corporation Federal agencies (they spend more than $500 billion annually of your tax dollars) have been instructed to reduce their budgets by 10% in 2013 per a directive from the Office of Management and Budget, the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States. This certainly comes as no surprise as a stubborn economy persists, minimal jobs are being created and very little is being invested in businesses.

Even though the Great Recession was supposed to have ended in June 2009, we have seen the largest two-year drop in labor compensation "wages and benefits" since the early 1960s. The foreclosure crisis continues, and for the first time, the number of "unemployed Americans whose benefits have run out" has pushed past the two million mark.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of U.S. residents who said they had two jobs was 7.3 million in 2010, up from 4.5 million in 2007, the year the recession began. These are just some of the indicators cited by national media to illustrate that these remain tough times for the economy "one that is supposed to be the international pillar of strength.

Repeatedly our elected and appointed government officials have been admonished and told that the engine for job creation must be the private sector. The purpose of government in a democracy is not to create jobs but to support an environment in which the private sector can thrive and create employment opportunities. With that in mind, decision makers in Washington should embrace measures that would both reduce government spending and boost private sector jobs.

Here are two ways to help accomplish both: Enforce compliance with Title 44 of the United States Code which directs federal agencies to channel all printing through the United States Government Printing Office (GPO). For decades, GPO has had the best of all government procurement programs. Printers nationwide depend on the millions of dollars that GPO awards annually to the private sector for the production of envelopes, tags, color copying, kit folders, cut sheets, four-color process materials and promotional specialties to mention a few categories of print jobs.

Most printers vying for this work are small businesses with 20 or fewer employees, and their livelihoods depend on the $2,000 to $5,000 average per GPO job. GPO has said it annually awards contracts to more than 2,500 vendors nationwide. This represents some 50,000 jobs.

The total number registered to do business with GPO is around 16,600 vendors, representing potentially 332,000 jobs. The key word is potentially. If the estimated $800 million in print work now being done in agency print shops were stopped that huge volume of printing would be channeled through the GPO where costs would be reduced by as much as 50% compared with agency plants. If that were done, the potential annual savings for taxpayers would be at least $400 million, and this is an historical fact.

However, the $800 million is based on government accounting which is strange and excludes many of the costs the private sector includes in its accounting. In real numbers, the government controls many billions of dollars in printing (as everyone recognizes, government runs on paper). More private sector jobs would be needed to handle the increase in work that would flow through the GPO procurement program, and this would be a welcomed boost for job seekers and the economy.

Embrace new procurement technology that is enabling private sector organizations to reduce their cost for goods and services by 25% to 50%. Antiqued procurement programs that have not been updated in 20 or more years are as effective as typewriters in today's computer age.